Some time passed and the rain continued to berate the mountainside as if deciding whether or not to stop completely. The broken bus lay motionless in a crumpled form near the bottom of the mountain, smoke oozing out into the night air. The atmosphere outside was tense yet eerily quiet as if life's conductor raised its hands to order an uproar of screaming brass but froze in place, leaving the entire orchestra of life to remain unnaturally and chillingly quiet. It felt like pure suspended insanity; life void of all components and mechanisms. It was as if the people who were once inside the bus lay lost and defeated as silence overpowered the mountainside.
The captain of the Karasuno volleyball team lay angled upward on his back in an unbearably uncomfortable position as a large tree branch from outside the bus got forced underneath him when he went through the windshield. The teen got ejected from the bus near the end of the descent; the surrounding glass, metal, and tree branches all seemed to claw at him like a cat getting a new toy. His body, which laid unconscious moments before, was now trying its best to spring back into life despite the numerous cuts and scrapes of every size decorating almost every inch of his being, including a single large gash in stomach; the source of the gradually increasing pool of blood under his back. His eyes hesitated as they began to shift back and forth under his closed lids for a few moments until finally, his body allowed him to open his eyes slowly, as blurry images tried to piece themselves together to determine his current location. Once his dark grey eyes gradually focused in more and more he tried to understand what just happened after the crash, but his mind remained fuzzy with images not fitting together correctly, like a puzzle in his brain trying over and over again to get each piece to fit in their respective places. The stench of blood quickly met his nostrils as he suddenly had the urge to throw up. Upon fully opening up his eyes, he tried his best to move his head from side to side to look around, eyes going in and out of focus, but still couldn't fully grasp the situation.
The captain tried to get up; first propping up on his elbows, as rain fell on him, then trying to use the edge of a nearby tree to hoist himself off the branch underneath him. As he attempted this maneuver, he immediately regretted making that decision, as a sharp pain resonated through his body and he yelped out in agony. The pain surged through him as if his veins and bloodstream were on fire as he muffled out a cry. He looked down to try and piece together why he hurt so terribly only to see his shirt ripped almost to shreds and blood smeared below his left arm around his abdomen. He winced as he looked down and found what was once the metal divider of the window he was sleeping against jabbed into his side, blood leaking everywhere. Staring at the bloody sight below he felt bile rise up to his throat yet again as he tried to choke it back. Daichi knew that by taking out the metal shard it would inevitably lead to his death, so he grudgingly decided to keep it in, trying hard to endure the pain.
Daichi knew that he was still wearing his Karasuno jacket and so he thought maybe he could use it to restrict the blood flow would be a good idea as he questioned what the best possible way to get it off would be. He tried to slowly roll his shoulder to inch his way out of it, pain escalating in every movement after he found that a piece of it was snagged on the branch underneath him. Instead, he decided to first get off the unbearable uncomfortable branch. The captain clenched his teeth and slid his body down so that the branch was higher than before, away from his abdomen and closer to his neck, that way he could at least use it as a cushion of some sorts, being extra careful not to irritate the metal penetrating his stomach. Finally what seemed like forever, but in reality was a short amount of time, he got far enough down where his jacket unsnagged and his head now rested on the log. Daichi stopped momentarily and panted, trying to catch his breath, as rain slowly fell upon his face mixing with his sweat. Even after this tiny accomplishment, he persevered in attempting to bandage himself as he carefully maneuvered his arms over towards the zipper of his coat and shakily started unzipping, hands slipping in the rain. After the third try, he finally managed to unzip his jacket.
Once done, with what should have been an easy task, he propped up on one elbow and tried to move his torso to remove his track jacket and, despite hardly noticing that it was even there, felt pain sear through him as he attempted this. Daichi clenched his teeth trying not to scream out as a little whine escaped, but was stopped short as a tugging sensation shifted something inside him and revealed that the shard had skewered not only him but his jacket as well. Furthermore, with every movement of his torso he exhibited, the jacket was pulled further inside his body, as more blood rose from the wound that invaded him.
"Shit! Fuck!" Daichi cursed out loud in exasperation as his vision started to go white in blinding pain and the blood continued to flow, perhaps even more than before. I was doing so well too… he thought. Not knowing what would happen to him and where everyone was at, was starting to take it's toll on the captain as he shakily looked around for some sign of anyone else but came up empty. He tried calling out for help but his voice came out much weaker once it left his mouth, sounding like a mere squeak. Without anyone to help him he took it upon himself to try one more time to get his jacket off from his right side and wrap it around the metal protruding from him. He lifted his right shoulder up and rotated his elbow around in an attempt to remove the jacket. The sweat running down his forehead fell into his eyes, causing the captain to stop mid process and use his hand to wipe it off. The rain had started to pick up now and was hitting Daichi directly in the face making it almost impossible to see what he was doing at all.
"Dammit…" Daichi grumbled as he tried shifting ever so slightly on his right elbow. In any other circumstance he could normally do this simple task of taking a jacket off, but his strength felt like a fraction of what it normally was and he could barely make a firm grasp of the wet material. "Damn it! Come on…" Daichi swore with urgency in his voice as he collapsed in defeat, his head falling back and eyes closing. A few moments passed as he opened his eyes and stared up at the dark sky, droplets of rain beating down on his face. He reached one hand up to try and cover up his eyes like a visor as he lay in the mud alone with his thoughts.
Where is everyone? His mind kept returning to the rest of the team, concerns mounting as the silence that surrounded him only moments ago was now replaced by the sound of heavy rainfall hitting off the tree leaves and metal structure of the bus which was barely visible through the thick black smoke and fog. The bus itself was around 15-20 meters away from him, but the rain mixed with the thick smoke from the bus, made the bus virtually impossible to even see. Placing his hands on the wet, muddy ground, he instinctively attempted to get up once more and grab his jacket, third time's the charm right? He told himself, trying his best to boost his own confidence.
"I have to stop the blood flow somehow…" he huffed, not going down without a fight. "if not I'll bleed to death." This time though, he was able to lift himself up further than last, thinking that he finally was going to succeed in getting the jacket off his right side enough so that he could wrap it around the left. His momentary joy though faded as his hands and elbows that were holding him up slipped on the muddy surface below them and the back of his head came crashing down on the branch he was using as a pillow of sorts. Not only did this cause him to receive a full blown headache but with the way he landed on it he also got that uncomfortable stinging sensation back in his jaw. His jaw that was killing him earlier on the bus now made itself present as the pain intensified, though still easily dwarfed by the pain in his abdomen. This recent attempt at moving caused what felt like a hammer striking a hot chisel in his abdomen to rush through his senses as Daichi let out a bloodcurdling scream and dropped back to the ground, sweating profusely. Within seconds, dizziness started to take effect and it felt as though he would lose conscious at any given moment.
'Damn it. What's happening to me?' Daichi thought as he panted heavily, worry sweeping across his face. 'How could I be so careless?...if only I knew of a better way to get this damn thing off then I could move and I wouldn't have to worry about this.' Daichi looked down at the piece of pole thrust inside him. So much blood covered his lower half making it unbearingly difficult to stay positive about anything in this situation.
"I just have to think about something else besides the pain." he told himself as fear tried to overcome him. "I hope the others are doing better than I am. I hope Suga, Asahi, and all the others are still alive and well. Please let them be ok. Please let mine be the worst of all, they have to be ok… they have to be…" Daichi huffed out as if chanting a prayer. Lightheadedness making its way back to the captain making everything slightly blurry around the corners of his vision. Everything he had gone through in the last couple minutes was almost too much to handle.
Suddenly though, from the direction of the prior scream, Daichi noticed a shifting figure towards his right as he tried his best to lift his head in that direction in attempt to see who, or what, it was. After a few seconds some shadow emerged from the bush. It appeared to be a person, rather short, a girl maybe? Eventually the blurred figure came within distance, exhausted and huffing. It wasn't until the person got closer did Daichi recognize the it as Yachi. The assistant manager emerged with a slight limp in her step as she made her way towards Daichi with extreme worry present on her face. The girl huffed, taking several deep breaths as she bent over slightly and placed her hands on her legs. After her second long break to catch her breath, she continued eagerly running over towards him.
"Daichi!" she screamed as she headed for him, blood oozing from a large cut on her right upper thigh, running all the way down her leg. Once she got to him she practically fell and gasped. Daichi let out a quick sigh in relief upon seeing a familiar face, though his breathing was extremely labored as he looked up at her, eyes focusing in and out. Yachi leaned in front of him, her hair was messy and she had tears in her eyes and cuts all along her body, but the main priority was the one on her right leg. There was a bit of purple surrounding the gash on her leg, most likely infected but she seemed okay. Overall, the girl was definitely shell-shocked and still trying to overcome the crash mentally, but physically much better than Daichi himself. She scanned over Daichi, eyes immediately finding the source of his pain: the piece of sharp blood-stained steel protruding from an area near his abdomen. Yachi's eyes got big and wide with tears as she looked at the scene unfolding in front of her and cried.
"Oh God…Daichi i-it'll be okay. J-just-" the small blonde girl quivered clearly at a loss for words as she herself was still trying to comprehend the sight in front of her. "I-I'll try and stop it somehow? Oh God, how?" Yachi stumbled over her words looking mortified as Daichi's eyes started to droop closed. The first year took both hands and placed them around the slowly flowing blood as she yelled at Daichi to stay with her.
He tried to snap out of it as he turned his head to gather in some more of his surroundings, his blood continuing to run out of his side and his vision beginning to darken incredibly, almost passing out from his anguish. Words and sentences starting to sound more sloppy and incoherent as time trickled by. The pain was unbearable as his head rolled around in a feeble attempt to stay conscious, only barely hearing the words Yachi was telling him.
After a few second, the dizzy spell seemed to fade enough for him to tell Yachi what he has been trying to do with his jacket. "I can't move much on my own," he sighed as he looked up pleadingly into Yachi's eyes, "But I thought that if I can just get my damn jacket off I could wrap it around this thing." Yachi stared at the captain with a confused look as Daichi continued on, pausing at various times to grunt through the pain as he trying to angle his right side upward, "Just pull this off... my arm and we can... use it." Yachi simply sat kneeling beside him with her hands on her knees and her mouth slightly open, baffled by Daichi's request. She could see when he angled himself upward that the jacket that was being pulled into his wound was indeed there, but the right sleeve had been ripped to the point that it already lay detached from his right side and was soaking in the mud underneath his body. The only thing that remained on Daichi's arm that he was still jestering toward Yachi was his jersey's short sleeve and a long incision that ran almost from his elbow to his wrist, likely part of the reason his jacket lay in tatters beneath him.
Surrounding the jersey and Daichi himself sat a pool of his blood, causing Yachi to attribute this odd request as a symptom of his apparent immense blood loss. With her eyes beginning to tear up, she put her hand delicately on Daichi's right shoulder and pretended to remove his jacket while actually grabbing the real jacket beneath him. She did not have time to help him realize that the jacket was not there as he was likely surviving on borrowed time already. After carefully setting him back down, Yachi stood and frantically looked around for any sort of medical supplies, or any bag at all for that matter. If she found one of their bags there could be a phone in it and some extra clothes that she could use as a makeshift bandage. The rain was coming down harder now as she scanned the crash site eventually spotting what looked to be a duffle bag over by a tree not too far away. Upon closer inspection she was relieved to find out that it was indeed a duffle bag as she limped over as fast as she could and grabbed it. Once back to Daichi she ripped open the bag, missing the zipper the first time because of her shaky hands, but managed to get ahold of it the second time. Inside the bag was a Karasuno jersey with the number 3 on it, a pair of socks, and a half drank water bottle. Yachi reached inside and grabbed hold of the jersey and used it to keep the pressure on his injury in a feeble attempt to halt the flow of blood. The captain looked at her and the jersey number and knew instantly that it was Asahi's bag.
"Thanks" was all he could stifle out as he winced and tried not to think about the pain.
Yachi then reached back into the bag and grabbed hold of the jersey shorts and decided to wrap them as best as she could around her own leg to stop the blood that was slowly tricking out. The shorts though proved to be hard to wrap around so she took it upon herself to rip the shorts into a more suitable cloth. Hard concentration was taken which caused her to take one of her wrist to wipe sweat off her brow, as she sat there soaking wet from the previous rain and wondered how all this could happen? Was this really real? After finishing the task of wrapping the bruise on her leg she reached back into the bad for the third time.
Yachi though, seemed flustered as she kept opening and closing different zipper pockets looking for something. "Why doesn't he have a phone?" she restlessly fretted as Daichi just looked up confused at first then anger darkening his brow "Damn it, not again Asahi!" The captain cursed exhaustedly as Yachi, slightly startled by the outburst, grew more curious at the captain's words. As if on cue from Yachi's expression, Daichi continued "He never brings his phone to matches. He refuses to bring it actually! He always tells everyone that he's afraid to lose it. Suga and I have both told him in the past to bring it just in case of emergencies" he attempted to gesture, the pain causing his breath to hitch "like this one for example! But still he forgets!" Daichi fumed before taking a deep breath and continuing. "Figures that his bag is the first bag we find too".
Yachi groaned, not being able to call for help in times of immense pressure was not something that she took well to. Her stress levels were already at it's max as she let her arms drop in defeat.
"Do you know where everyone else is?" Daichi asked hoping that the answer would be that everyone else was fine and that he was the only one to suffer, but when Yachi shook her head slowly, Daichi's eyes widened in fear.
"When I woke up, I was outside the bus and when I heard you scream I quickly ran to help you. I didn't get a chance to look around," she answered carefully taking her wrists and wiping away her crying eyes, as the tears slowly leaked out. Her fingers wet with a combination of mud, blood and rain as she noticed that the sky started letting up to a drizzle again. "I'm so scared Daichi," she hiccuped, body slightly shaking. A switch inside of the captain felt like it had flipped, as if some fatherly aspect about him wanted to protect this young girl from any harm as he saw her crying in front of him. He slowly tried to sit all the way from his semi-slumped position against the log, head slightly leaning against it for some support, with a mixture of fear and pain across his face, the rush of adrenaline allowing him to stay conscious.
"We need to find everyone else. As much as it pains me to say this, or even think about this, the others may be worse off than me," Daichi admittedly suggested, staring down at the metal shard in his abdomen and feeling overpowering dread. "And if you see any other abandoned bags along the way grab them, they may be useful" the captain added as Yachi nodded in agreement and both her and Daichi looked over towards the direction of the bus, the smoke and rain combo still in full effect.
After getting everything situated, and Yachi herself about ready to go look for some other survivors, the young girl glanced back over at Daichi and was going to tell him that she would be back in a minute, but she was cut short when she noticed his eyes focusing in and out. Eyeing him questioningly she decided to wait a minute to see if he was ok.
Daichi's eyes that were once so full of life were now lingering in a faded state as they soon started drooping closed. He reopened his eyes slowly to find a middle aged woman with black hair tied back into a ponytail that lay swung over her shoulder staring back at him. The lady wore a pair of blue jeans along with an emerald green top with a light sequence of small beads on the collar. The woman also wore a pair earrings that hung with a somewhat intricate silver metal pattern that curved around a small emerald stone that dangled just below her ear. She possessed some sort of pleasant aura that surrounded her as she kneeled by Daichi's side where Yachi once was, a bright comforting smile stretched across her face.
"Mom?" Daichi quivered in a raspy and uncertain tone and tears began to fill his eyes. Her smile shined brighter in response as the scenery around them simply melted away until the only remaining elements were Daichi and his mother. "What are you doing here?", he asked, as his mother reached out her hand to wipe his tears away.
"I came to see you, hunny. I wanted to tell you how proud I am of you," his mother reassured him. "You've become such a handsome man, your father must be so proud of you." Her voice seemed as soothing as a songbird's cry that could be heard delicately spreading over open sun-painted meadows. Daichi looked up into his mother's relaxed green eyes and failed to notice both his fear and pain immediately vanish, only to be replaced a state of pseudo-intoxication.
Daichi sat confused yet relieved as he smiled back and thanked his mother in a slurred, nearly incomprehensible, manner. Upon seeing her son's grin, Daichi's mother moved her hand up to the top of his head and rubbed his hair with her hand, causing the tired captain to lean into her hand like a kitten purring to its master. She always tended to keep her nails at a long length and would often massage and scratch Daichi's head when he was a youth. His mother began to sing him a soft lullaby, continuing to scratch and rub his head, to which in response he smiled and relaxed, letting all his muscles relieve tension as he drifted off into a serene sleep. Daichi continued to look with euphoric disposition at his mother, the intervals of his blinks becoming shorter and shorter. After about a minute or two, the image of his mother began to slowly fade, becoming translucent though still defined. His grin never faltered, however, despite watching his mother fade away like an old polaroid picture in reverse. Sluggishly, he whispered, "Wait… Mom, please come back… I miss you…" as completely vanished before his eyes. Even after her visage was completely gone, her voice remained in his head for a few moments more, still singing the lullaby to her baby boy.
Yachi took a long hard look him questionally. Is he delirious, she questioned to herself as she witnessed a tear escape from Daichi closed eyes and listened to him softly call out to his mother. She lightly grabbed his shoulders and shook him once again, more concerned than ever before as the captain refused to wake up, though still avoiding injuring him further. "Daichi! Hey, Daichi, snap out of it, please! It's me, Hitoka Yachi. Yachi! I'm not your mother, come on, you have to keep your eyes open! You have to stay awake." She screamed as her captain slowly started regaining some composure. "Don't worry, we're going to call for help soon! I promise." Yachi told Daichi as his eyes slowly opened again looking like he was deep in thought. After hesitating a moment, the captain looked up at the young girl more closely.
"Yachi?" he muttered, trying to speak. His words were strained and slurred as he with extreme difficulty said, "what's going on? Is the match about to start?"
"I was just about to go look for the oth-" she replied as the ending of Daichi's question caught up to her and made her stop mid sentence. 'Wait, what Match?' The young girl quizzically stared at him, maybe he really was delirious? Or maybe he's having hallucinations?
"I was just about to go look for the others" she repeated again as Daichi's head seemed to slowly roll from side to side.
"Daichi, there is no game. We already won all of them hours ago. Then we got into a crash and fell down the mountain." Yachi told him slowly as the captain looked as if he was intoxicated laying on the muddy ground in some random forest.
"Alright good, just make sure Hinata is out of the bathroom in time to start our warm-ups" Daichi continued on as if not even hearing what the girl just told him only moments before. Yachi, now even more fearful than before stated again "Daichi listen to me. We already played our matches today and we won them all. But on our way home something terrible happened and we got into a bad crash." The girl enunciated trying to get to Daichi's head as the boy just looked over in confusion.
"What?" Daichi asked after a moments hesitation as he lifted a hand up to his head "The games finished?"
"Yes!" Yachi reiterated with her bottom lip quivering as she nearly burst into tears again. Daichi did not respond to her answer and instead visibly shivered, which Yachi noticed. She went into the bag to find some other piece of clothing to help keep him warm, something like a sweater she could lay on top of him, but all that was left was a pair of sock which would not solve anything.
"Say, Yachi?" Daichi asked after a moment's hesitation, "It's cold in here. Can you go tell them to turn the air conditioning down?" Daichi muttered as he too seemed to wrap his arms around his torso the best he could and visibly shivered. Yachi stopped searching upon hearing his latest request and turned to look at Daichi who was not even looking at her anymore and had head was leaning back against a branch at an angle. His eyes were not focused on her like before, nor did they seem to be focused on anything at all as he blankly stared up into the canopy above, rain hitting his face as Daichi himself was too out-of-it to even seem to comprehend what was even going on anymore.
Yachi seemed to be at a loss for words as she looked at her teammate with utmost concern and thought about what to say next. Knowing full well that she was outside and there was no way to turn down the imaginary air conditioning, she simply stared at him questioningly. With nothing coming to her mind as to how to respond to his apparent lunacy she simply went along with his story the best she could and said, "I'm going to go find someone that can help, okay? Maybe Ukai is around here somewhere?" Daichi agreed upon hearing this and thanked the girl as both he and Yachi looked up towards the sky, feeling the rain pick back up again.
"I'll be right back Daichi. I'm going to go find someo…" she stopped in the middle of her sentence and sighed, almost in defeat. "I'm going to go ask Ukai if he can tell the school to turn down the air conditioning," Yachi said with a hint of sadness edging her voice as a look of determination filled her body and she did a little fist pump. "I swear I'll make it quick as I can! Will you be okay here by yourself?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine," he said as he looked around drowsily. "I just need to find my bag and get dressed, it's somewhere around here in one of these lockers…Oh! If you see Hinata out there tell him he needs to hurry up as well, he's always..." His voice trailed off as he looked back up toward the sky, his eyes being unable to focus on anything as rain continued to fall, soaking everything around him. He started to reach his right hand up and clenching as if trying to grab something, though all he managed to grasp were drops of rain.
Yachi looked down and sighed sorrowfully, then took this as her cue to leave as she set off to track down the others, knowing all too well that Daichi was fading between life and death. 'I have to find someone quick' she muttered to herself limping over towards the direction of the bus. While limping towards the vehicle, Yachi suddenly felt her foot trip over a branch in the process, causing her to fall face first into the puddle. The girl fell face first into the mud, bringing her hands out just in time to fall on her palms and not her face, slight scrape marks along her hands now mixing with the mud below her. A slight stinging now added to her injuries as she held back the tears she wanted so badly to let out, trying to be strong. As Yachi looked over towards the branch, she noticed it was just the right size to support her as she crawled over and grabbed it, hugging it close to her chest in the mud as a light rumble was heard miles away.
As if on cue from the rumble in the sky, tears started freely falling down her face as the last proverbial straw snapped in her mind and the girl weeped. 'That's it! I've had enough,' everything around her was just too nightmarish to be real, causing her to curl her open hand into a fist and uncharacteristically slam it into the ground. 'This wasn't actually happening', she thought as she just snapped, the last bit of patience she had in the world fading. 'Why is this happening to us?' She sobbed as she gripped the branch in her hand tighter and using it to stand, her right leg almost failing to work as Yachi dragged herself up the pole.
"Please let there be somebody alive on the bus" she huffed out, rain really coming down now as her hair fell in front of her face covering most of her eyes. "Please…" her voice trailing off as she trekked towards the bus in an extremely sluggish manner.